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Is their a Dr.in the Sacramento area who specializes in hair loss. My 18 year old daughter has been experiencing hair loss for about a year. I took her to the Dr. last year and was told it was probably due to stress. Her blood work showed no abnormalities. She has another appointment soon. I am thinking it could be heredity. My father stated losing his hair at 18. I have Kaiser Insurance and I don’t think they are going to do a whole lot to figure out what is going on with her hair loss. What would be the next step? Should she be referred to a Dermatologist? If you could give some assistance, that would be appreciated, thanks.

Women’s hair loss is very different from men’s hair loss. Finding the source of the female thinning isn’t as simple as looking to the history of hair loss from the male side of the family. You should take a look at the female hair loss category of this site and read the many posts on the subject. A doctor who specializes in hair transplantation and has the intellectual capacity to analyze it may be able to help. Usually this is an elimination process for known causes.

I would be happy to give you an opinion, but you would have to fly to Los Angeles to see me. Or Dr. Pak goes to our San Jose office and may be a first start to the process of analysis. It’s not quite Sacramento, but it’s closer than Los Angeles. If not, you can try the physician search at ISHRS.org.

I am 23 female. I was using flat iron to straight my hair for about one and half year. Now it’s been almost six months I have totally stop using it because I was loosing hairs. I have been noticing that my hair is getting thinner. When I split my hair into sections. Is it because of flat iron? Will they grow back? What am I suppose to do? Does flat iron make us go bald? I am very much worry. No one in my family has been through any hair problem and/or baldness. I don’t even have any diseases and/or not taking any medications. Please help! Thank you!

If flat iron use damaged the hair above the scalp, then the hair that grows from below the scalp will eventually replace it with healthier hair. It just takes time. Flat irons do not make people go bald — damaging your hair will result in loss, though. There are safer ways to iron your hair, as described in my book. Sorry, I can’t re-write the book here.

I am a female, 36 years old with long Naturally curly hair. In the last 2 years have seen a dramatic decrease in hair. This runs in my family. After seeing the dermatologist to try to prevent any further loss it was recommended to me to use once a day mens Rogaine foam. Having long hair I am finding it very difficult to apply and am unsure what area to apply it to. I am worried I am wasting product on having it soak into my hair and not my scalp. Yet I want to make a valid effort to do this as its important to me to at least keep the hair I still have.

I should also point out that my hair “expands” so to speak when dry. Frizzy. I do see why some try to apply after a shower as that is when you can get to the scalp easier. Thanks for your time and i hope you can give me some insight.

Many people who use Rogaine in one form (such as the foam) may try it in another form (liquid). There may not be an easy, practical answer to your problem, but you can try the minoxidil liquid and see if that is easier for you to use. These medications are a waste in the hair, as their only value is on the scalp itself.

My daughter is 7 years old and her hair his shedding alot. No bald spots. After her shower and when I brush her long hair. Many hairs fall onto the floor or into the brush. It seems like she has new hairs growing in or can this be breakage. She otherwise is healthy and not showing no sign of illness. Is it normal for a 7 year old girl to be shedding this much. When should I see a doctor. She has been shedding for about 3 weeks.

If you are worried about something that you are observing that is not normal, then go see a doctor now! After all, you know your daughter best.

Do keep in mind you can lose 100+ hairs a day. Sometimes we seem to lose more hair at times or notice more hair loss and that can also be normal. There is nothing wrong with getting a physical exam to make sure your daughter is healthy. Abnormal hair loss can be a sign of undiscovered health issues, but it is a very vague secondary symptom. It is a challenge to most doctors.

What is your opinion on the german products pantostin and ell cranell? They contain Alfatradiol, could this be effective for AGA. Thanks.

Take a look at this study I found. It is not the best study, nor is it the most promising… but it is something. Personally, I don’t think alfatradiol is effective for AGA (androgenic alopecia).

I am experiencing hair loss for the past 6 months. I approached a skin specialist and cosmetologist a month ago. she suggested to use minoxidil 5%. I am using it for one month, but now i lose more hair than earlier. My marriage is in the next month, but she is asking me to use for 3months. I have a plan of becoming pregnant, but once if i stop using minoxidil after the third month, wont i get in to the hairloss trouble again? i am totally worried. please help me out.

You might experience some initial shedding from the medication, but if you stick with it those hairs should regrow. However, if you stop the medication any benefits you see will disappear.

Pregnancy changes things, though. Since you’re planning on starting a family, you might want to stop it now, particularly since you have not been on it long enough to see benefits. There are warnings about using minoxidil when you are pregnant, so if you do become pregnant you should stop using it until after you’ve given birth (and if you plan on breastfeeding, you should wait until that is complete, too).

Hello,
Can there be a “normal” amount of minaturized hairs throughout your head without a balding problem present?

I’m wondering because just from observing women’s hair, woman of all ages, I’ve noticed a lot of woman with some wispy hairs sticking out on different areas of their head, but these woman are without signs of hair loss. Do people have a normal about of miniturized hair through out their head? Or perhaps are these wispy hairs caused by blow drying,coloring,etc.

Thank you and hope you can answer my question.

A “follicular unit” has full terminal mature hairs and some vellus (shorter and thinner) hairs. If you take a small area of your scalp (like the size of a pea) and cut down the hair, the thinner hairs produced by the miniaturization process in genetic balding may not be distinguished from vellus hairs (both hairs have smaller diameters). When I look at the scalp under intense magnification, I will often see some hairs that have thinner hair shafts. I generalize that a normal non-balding person will have less than 20% of the hairs that I see with finer hair shafts. They may be miniaturized hairs of the balding process if they impact the entire follicular unit to some degree OR they may really be vellus hairs in their numbers are less than 20% of the follicular unit hair count.

Snippet from the article:

In the early ’80s, Robin Kettlewell had a thing for punk rock and a haircut that showed it: purple, with three stripes shaved into one side of her head.

So when she faced losing her hair during chemotherapy for breast cancer this summer, she knew what to do. First she had her long golden brown hair cut off for Locks of Love. That soon became a brush cut that she dyed pink. A few days later, that turned into a pink Mohawk.

Now though, 11 weeks into chemotherapy, she goes proudly and completely bald. Shopping. At restaurants. In her Saturn Sky convertible. But when riding on either of her two Harley-Davidson motorcycles, she always wears a helmet - always. She’s not going to do anything stupid, after all.

Read the full article: Breast cancer patient faces the disease “head first and no looking back”

Robin is taking back control of her life and is showing the world that even cancer can’t keep her down. She’s able to spread breast cancer awareness by being so brave. Check out the blog Robin created to share her journey.

We wish her the best of luck!

I recently went through about 4-5 months of hair loss. I stopped taking Lexapro and it stopped falling out completely within 6 weeks or so. Do you believe this hair loss is permanent? Do you have any advice on what to use to promote hair growth? I hope this medication did not actually damage the follicles and I will have spots forever. I am worried. Thank you for responding.

45 year old women very nervous.

In medicine, as in life, things are not so clear cut. I cannot say for sure if your hair loss was due to a medication such as Lexapro (escitalopram oxalate), but there are reports of hair loss with this medication. In fact, I’ve written about it in the past. So if it is the Lexapro, I would expect that this loss is temporary and you’ll need to wait with great patience for regrowth to occur. There may be other factors involved, though. This is something you need to explore with your physician and have a medical work up and a good history of events.

I understand that you have answered questions about pregnancy and hair loss but I was wondering what preventive measure I can take to avoid prolonged hair loss or hair thinning as I already have thin hair.

I am 23 years old and nine months pregnant and I have wonderfully thick hair right now, due mostly to the lack of hair loss that pregnancy can cause and also, I think, to the daily prenatal vitamins I have taken, since I never used any before. My older sister started her family at age 29 and after each of her four children experienced about 6 months of hair thinning and loss. Our family has thin hair already, so I’d like to avoid this as much as possible.

I plan on breastfeeding which is supposed to help limit hair loss. Are there any vitamins, minerals, treatments, foods or natural methods to encourage hair growth or prevent hair loss in the year following pregnancy? [Note: I'm not going to 'stop having kids' so I'll use your advice after future pregnancies too :)]

There is little that can be done to prevent pregnancy related hair loss. Fortunately, it does not happen to most women. It is normal, though. You can learn more at the American Pregnancy Association.

Unrelated to your question though, I wish you good luck and hope everyone is happy and healthy.